Lando Norris Leads Oscar Piastri in Brazilian Practice Session

Lando Norris edged out fellow driver and championship contender Oscar Piastri for the fastest time in the closing stages of the practice session at the Brazilian Grand Prix.

The British racer, who seized the championship lead from his teammate by one point after winning in Mexico City a fortnight back, topped the Melbourne-born driver by a tiny margin of 0.023secs.

Before then, Piastri had been the leading McLaren for most of the session before sprint qualifying set to begin at the evening session.

The Red Bull star, the other racer in the championship fight, trailing with a 36-point deficit behind Norris, finished in 17th place as his team followed a different programme.

Verstappen's team-mate the Japanese driver was the only driver to have an incident, though minor, when he rotated at the fourth corner soon after starting.

The Japanese slid over the curbs on exit before spinning across the run-off area, and was fortunate to avoid just a slight brush of the barrier.

The Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton also lost it, at the very end of the practice, spinning around through the high-speed Mergulho turn approaching the final bend on to the start-finish straight.

The seven-time champion finished practice in P19, trailing team-mate Charles Leclerc.

Norris and Piastri were significantly quicker of the rest of the field, with the German's Sauber in third, 0.619 seconds off Piastri's pace.

The Aston Martin of the Spanish driver was in fourth, with the Sauber of Gabriel Bortoleto ahead of the Mercedes of Russell and Alpine's Gasly and the Williams of Sainz.